Green Art

Going green in the art room is very easy. Almost anything can be made into an art project. This past month the second and third graders have been involved in creating toys from found objects.

They were first asked to search for and bring found objects from their homes. A found object is anything that you have laying around that you no longer need. (These "useless" objects can range from bottle caps to old toys or even labels from cans of food.)

After they harvested these objects and bought them to the classroom, they were asked to think about what these things could be repurposed into. We watched a short three and a half minute video about recycled art (see link below) and then the fun began.

Each child was given $5.oo in Van Gogh Dough (fake classroom money) with which to purchase other found objects from my recycle cart. Scissors, glue, paint and collage items were on hand to enhance their projects. The children worked tirelessly to create the perfect toys. This sometimes involved a bit of experimentation until the art work was just right.

The end results were amazing! The children had a great time and I enjoyed watching the wheels turn in their minds as they created their fabulous green toys.

Click the arrow below the photograph to view your children hard at work. You can also follow this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p08mk5udmNg to view the video that we saw in class.

Found Object Art

The Junior High Sculpture Experience

The junior high school girls have just concluded their unit on Patterns in Sculpture. They began by molding sculptures out of clay and continued by creating constructions out of wood. To culminate their experience we took a trip to the Brooks Museum of Art. In the galleries we viewed several sculptures made out from different mediums. Before we left we were treated to a workshop on using model magic and found objects to create works of art. If you would like to view the sculptures created by our students they are on display in the MHAFYOS Sculpture Gallery. Enjoy the show!

The Art of Science

As Leonardo da Vinci understood, the power of observation is a very important tool in understanding both Art and Science. His books are filled with many notes and drawings of his scientific studies and included a wide range of topics. He would spend hours writing and recording meticulous details such as how facial expressions change to reflect the moods of man or of the anatomy of a birds wing and how it shifts as the bird takes flight. These observations not only helped him both in understanding the natural order of things, but they enabled him to create highly realistic works of art and amazing inventions.
Art and science often go hand in hand. The First Graders have just finished their unit on Portraits in Art. We have learned that a Portrait is a picture of a person, and created Fancy King Portraits in the style of Holbien. We learned that when an artist creates a picture of himself it is called a Self Portrait, and we created Self Portraits in the style of Van Gogh. We learned that Group Portraits include more than one person and we created Family Portraits in the style of Renoir. We even learned about Abstract art and created Grid Portraits in the style of Close and Cubist Portraits in the style of Picasso.
In Science the First Graders have been learning about shadows with Mrs. Henry. They leaned that every shadow must have three things, a light source, an object and a surface.
The Fifth and Sixth Grade Girls have also been learning about portraits. We spent several sessions learning about the proportions of a face and how each subject has his or her own personal features. Using mirrors, and special measuring tools (that they made themselves) they are in the process of creating Portraits in Proportion that include some of their own personal features.
And all of these lessons came together on Thursday, November 12th, when the fifth and sixth grade girls joined the first graders in the Science lab to help them create Shadow Portraits. The first graders’ heads were the objects. The older girls helped them by holding up the light sources and tracing the shadow of their profiles onto the surface (a piece of drawing paper). Then the younger children took the papers and shaded in their portraits and Mrs. Henry mounted them onto black construction paper.
The results are of course wonderful to look at but the lesson learned was even more valuable. Often children separate the subjects they learn in school into different categories and it is our job as teachers to show them how that these subjects relate to each other and to the world around them. Sometimes the connections are obvious, sometimes they need to be pointed out. And sometimes all it takes is a trip to another classroom to see that this is so.